Social Media

Top 5 Social Media Tips for C-Suite Execs

For the rank and file at companies big and small, social media is infiltrating the workplace and fast becoming an important part of day-to-day activities. When it comes to executives and upper management, though, social media mostly remains an art unpracticed.

We gathered up expert advice from Tim Bray of Google, Guy Kawasaki of Alltop (formerly Apple), Doug Ulman of Livestrong, John Battelle of Federated Media and Steve Rubel of Edelman on the why and the how when it comes to C-level executives and social media.

Their tips and advice range from practice to crucial and point to the need for C-suite executives of this generation to heed social media.

1. Go Where the People Are

First things first — making the case for social media. In terms of seriousness, there's no question that Twitter has its share of pointless babble and that Facebook users like sex. But both social networks have their serious sides and both have permeated public consciousness, and blogs have evolved to become an important source of news and information.

When it comes down to it, the people of this world speak social media, which means any CEO or C-level executive will need to be fluent in social media in order to keep their companies relevant.

Edelman Digital’s SVP, Director of Insights, Steve Rubel says that when it comes to social media, "It's simple math. Executives understand that their time/financial investments need to go where people are spending time, and that's social media."

Rubel — who comes across all varieties of CEOs in his line of work — convincingly uses research to drive this point home. "The average American consumes almost 12 hours of information per day in total (all formats) according to a study by the University of California at San Diego. However, social networks are increasingly directing these information flows. Nielsen reports that time spent on social networking sites averaged six hours per month globally."

Rubel further breaks it down in terms executives can relate to by comparing social media platforms today to carrying the same power and reach as television networks.

"Basically marketers have always focused on generating maximum awareness and (now) engagement with the greatest efficiency. In the past this was TV. Now it's social networks. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn [are] the new ABC, CBS, ABC and Fox. So my advice is to maximize these as best you can - but this requires surface area and thus not just a media buy."

To help, CEOs and executives should empower employees to explore social media initiatives and leverage paid and earned media. "Activate as many employees as possible to scale genuine engagement and secure surface area but use paid media to amplify your investments in time," recommends Rubel.

2. Invest in People

Most of us who are socially savvy recognize the value of relationships, but for the busy CEO or overworked CTO, the relationship side of social media takes time, and time is money.

John Battelle — Federated Media's chairman and CEO — has long been an active Twitter user and blogger, and over the years has found immense value in investing in people via social media. (Disclosure: Federated Media is a partner of Mashable.)

Battelle advocates that, "When sharing information with fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter, don't forget that your job is to add value to these folks' lives. Social media is about relationships."

Whatever the platform, social media allows for this type of human investment. Battelle advises that CEOs and executives should, "Be the kind of person others want to seek out because each time they interact with you (or your brand), they feel like you've earned their attention and their loyalty."

Battelle practices what he preaches. It's not common practice for CEOs to promote their Twitter handle in their email signature, but each of Battelle's emails include links to his blog and Twitter account, driving home the notion that he's interested in the people side of the business. This, combined with an engaging and interactive Twitter presence, has helped Battelle develop social equity — the very definition of earned media — that contributes to the bottom line of his business.

3. Be a Subject Matter Expert

Alltop CEO and former Apple evangelist, Guy Kawasaki is the poster child for the active social media executive. Kawasaki's perspective comes from years of blogging and using Twitter to further his business initiatives. He sees social media as a means for executives, "To establish yourself as a fascinating subject-matter expert."

For the executive looking to become a subject matter expert in the eyes of the public, and not just inside the organization, Kawasaki says that, "It's all about finding good stories, videos, and blog posts about your subject and providing links to these sources."

He uses StumbleUpon, SmartBrief, Alltop (a network he founded), and even outsources part of the story-discovery process to staff members. It's not a strategy that everyone agrees with, but at the end of the day Kawasaki is able to curate the best stories of interest for his audience, and in so doing, become an important — read: must-follow — source of information.

On that note, Kawasaki concludes that, "The test for your social media efforts is whether people find what you post so fascinating that they retweet it (or favor it, share it, or email it). Trust me, today the sincerest form of flattery is retweeting, not imitating, you."

4. Make it Personal

As a cancer survivor and the CEO of LIVESTRONG, Doug Ulman has the difficult of job of trying to be both a compassionate human being to others affected by cancer and also a strong business leader. Instead of taking a strictly business approach to Twitter and social media, Ulman prefers to be transparent and he advises other CEOs to do the same.

For Ulman, it's about experiencing social media to its fullest potential. He says, "My best advice would be that you must be transparent. If you use social media to simply push an agenda, a product or a cause you will not realize the true benefits that these tools provide."

Just as social media is about relationships, there's also humanness behind each and every Tweet and Facebook status update. The CEO that can make it personal can connect with the individual beyond the medium.

"I think people want to know who you are. What you do? What makes you tick? Not just hear your marketing agenda. They want to get to know you and you can only engage in that manner if you share some personal information and thoughts."

Of course, Ulman also recognizes the value of privacy. His personal take is to, "share things that are of interest to me – workouts, books that I am reading and articles I have read. They are not always related to LIVESTRONG or cancer but they are related to who I am and what inspires me."

5. Don't Neglect Internal Social Media

Considered a thought leader by many, Tim Bray is the co-inventor of XML, a prominent technology blogger, and as of March, Google's Developer Advocate, primarily with a focus on Android.

As someone who gets both traditional corporate culture and the freedom that blogging and social technologies allow, Bray's message to executives is: "Don't neglect internal social media."

Bray says, "Since I've started at Google, I've been extremely impressed how well the internal version of Google Buzz works to facilitate routing important information to people who need to hear it, and facilitate fast reactions."

For Bray and his team the internal tool of choice is Google Buzz, but that's obviously a choice motivated by his employer. Companies should consider a host of other internal social media options such as SAP Streamwork, 37Signals products, enterprise microblogs like Yammer. The adventurous employer could even experiment with Foursquare. Regardless of tool choice, the point is that internal parties can accomplish tasks faster by leveraging social technologies inside the workplace.

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